Sojourner Truth

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“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, these women together ought to be able to turn it right again.” 



Sojourner Truth (nee. Isabella Baumfree, c.1797-1883) is a famous abolitionist and woman’s right activist and idk which one I love her for more. After escaping slavery, she gave herself the name Sojourner Truth (owing to her mission to tell the truth about slavery). In her words “Truth is powerful and it prevails.” She became the first black woman to win a custody case against a black man. She was also the first black suffragette, and was personally received by President Abraham Lincoln.

As a religious studies student, her quotes on God and Christ strike a particular chord with me: “where did Christ come from? From a god and a woman! Man had nothing to do with him!” This is a powerful idea now, so one can only imagine how radical it was in her day.

Probably her most reknowned speech however is “Ain’t I A Woman” (swipe) in which she demanded equal rights for all women and all blacks. This speech was given in 1851, and has been on my mind given the current situation in the US. It doesn’t seem possible that in 169 so little in the US has changed - people of colour still live in fear of their lives and have to fight for the freedom that they supposedly earned so long ago. Sojourner knew that Black Lives Matter. It’s time the US government acknowledged that too.

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